Obama upholds case-by-case approach on religious hiring

WASHINGTON (JTA) — President Obama will continue to use a case-by-case approach to judge whether hiring discrimination based on religion is appropriate for religious groups.

The director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, Joshua DuBois, said Sunday that Obama believes judging each matter on a case-by-case basis is the best way of determining whether religious groups receiving federal funds to perform social services can take religion into account when hiring.

"The president strongly believes this is the best way to really fully understand this issue and other legal issues, and make a decision that will actually survive scrutiny,” DuBois said on Sunday, responding to a question about religious hiring at the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism’s biannual Consultation on Conscience.

DuBois said his office would consult with the White House counsel and the attorney general to “form a recommendation” on a particular issue and then “submit it to the president for review,” looking at the “legal and policy implication for each case as they come.”

Obama promised during the campaign that he would change the Bush-era rules that allow groups receiving federal funds to take religion into account when hiring.

Supporters of those rules, such as the Orthodox Union, say such practices are essential to maintaining the religious character of an organization. But opponents, such as the RAC, believe it amounts to government-funded religious discrimination.

When the president revamped the faith-based office in February, he announced the case-by-case formulation for judging legal issues, which at the time, some saw as a temporary formulation.

DuBois noted that “some conservative friends weren’t too happy” with the case-by-case decision, while the president’s “progressive allies wanted more of a sweeping change.”